Myths and Hoaxes
Forced Perspective and Snakes
Photographs of exceptionally large snakes are often published in social media and, at times, with claims of a new world record. In most instances it is just a case of forced perspective – the old fisherman and fish photograph. In order to create this perception, use a wide angle lens, get the snake (or fish) far away from the person in the background and as close to the camera as possible. In the photograph above, Johan used a 100 mm lens first, then a 50 mm lens for the middle photograph and for the monster snake on the right a wide angle lens was used. It’s a simple trick of photography that makes the snake look larger than it really is.
